Posts Tagged ‘Rape kits backlog’

Violence against women occurs within a society which condones male power and control.

At least one third of married women will be beaten by a spouse at some point in her marriage.

There are at least 2.4 million battered women in America each year.

The 1994 Violence Against Women Act was the first piece of federal legislation in the United States designed to address domestic violence.

Some examples of violence against women were not punished as crimes until relatively recently (marital rape domestic violence)

***2011: The Year of National Rape Kit Backlog Reform***

1. A rape kit takes usually 4-6 hours

2. It was found that in Illinois in 2010, 80% of rape kits were not tested.

3. It is estimated that 180,000 kits go untested each year–whose potential evidence, which could validate a woman’s claims, identify an attacker or exonerate a suspect, loiters on shelves and in warehouses.

4. Nationwide, crime labs saw their DNA testing backlog double from the beginning to the end of 2005, the most recent year for which data is available, according to a 2008 report by the Census of Publicly Funded Crime Laboratories.

5. It costs between $900 and $1,000 to process and test a rape kit, according to Jeffrey Boschwitz, president of Orchid Cellmark, one of the largest providers of DNA testing.

6. Experts said testing centers would need to increase their staffs by 73 percent to meet demand. Some law enforcement officials said they don’t have the funds or testing infrastructure to meet demand.

7.The federal government helps cities and states foot the bill through grants to local law enforcement agencies through the Debbie Smith Act, but it does not require states to report or enforce efforts to prevent a backlog of rape kit testing.

Some of the funds have also gone unspent, because the law stipulates they cannot be used to hire staff.

8. New York City, which had a 16,000 rape kit testing backlog more than a decade ago, has kept up to date on all completed rape kits, providing results within 30 to 60 days, according to a report from Human Rights Watch, which tracks the problem.